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 SEPT 6, 1872.]

ON THE BHAR KINGS.

265

Sháhjahán in the Dakhin. The prince, on his

foot of the hills, which was the jágir of Núr

return, was sent to Kángrah, and though it was not advisable that Süraj should accompany him he was allowed to join the expedition and marched to Kångrah with Shah Quli Khán Muhammad Taqī, Sháhjahán's Bakhshí. Sháh

Jahán's father, and when Sayyid Gafi Bárha

Quli was soon compelled to complain of Sūraj Mall, but was recalled, and Rájah Bikrámajit was sent instead.

The time which

elapsed

before Bikrámajit could join his command was

used by Stiraj Mall for mischief. He allowed a large number of imperial soldiers to return to the jägir on the plea that the war had lasted a long time and their outfit was bad, but told them to return when Bikrámajit should arrive.

He then plundered the whole district at the

opposed him with some of the troops that had not yet left, he killed him. Bikrámajit arrived

in the end of the 13th year, and Súraj Mall tried in vain to gain his favour by flattery. He therefore openly attacked Bikrámajit, but was repulsed, and Mau and N i r p iſ r, and the whole district, were occupied by the Imperialists. Súraj Mall fled to the hills and perished miser ably soon after. Fort Kot l ah also, which lies between Núrpur and Kángrah, was taken, and Mādhā Singh, brother of Sáraj Mall, who commanded it, together with his son, was sent to court (A. H. 1028). (To be continued.)

ON THE BHAR KINGS OF EASTERN OUDH. By W. C. BENETT, B.C.S., GONDA.

Three years ago I wrote of Dal and Bal, the they

manes. Leaving legend for history, we find that Firishtah, probably drawing from the

constantly appeared in the legends of any time

Tabakáti Nāsiri, records that “In 545 (1246–47

great Bhar heroes of eastern Oudh, that

between 1000 A.D. and 1400 A.D., and that

“A.D.) Sultán Nasiruddin marched through the

though they had eluded all my attempts to

“centre of the Duab, and took the Tilsindah(?)

saddle them with a date, they probably lived at

“fort, and in the same year advancing to “wards Karra laid waste the villages of Dalki “ and Malki and took prisoners a number of “their family and servants. This Dalki and “Malki were kings in the neighbourhood of the “Jamná, and had formerly royal stations at “Kálinjar and Karra.”

the beginning of the thirteenth century. I have since succeeded in hunting them down, and the

partial elucidation of a dark chapter of middle Indian history may prove interesting. The ancestors of the great Kanhpuria clan of

Rajputs, Sahas and Rahas, are

said to have com

pleted the conquest of the western half of the Pratābgarh district in Oudh by inflicting a de cisive defeat on the Bhars, whose kings Tiloki

Dalmau is about thirty miles to the west of

Karra, the similarity of the names Dalki, Malki, of Firishtah, Dal and Bal of the Bais and general

and Biloki were left dead on the battle-field.

tradition, and Tiloki and Biloki of the Kanh

A tradition of the Bais of Dhundhia Khera re lates that Abhaichand, the founder of that house

purias, the identity of the dates in the Bais, Kanhpuria, and Firishtah's accounts, and the identity of locality in all, place it beyond doubt that the Dalki and Malki of history are no others

in Oudh, defeated Dal and Bal on the banks of

the Ganges in the Roy Bareilly district. In my report on the chief clans of the Roy Bareilly

than the great Bhar Kings of tradition who fell

district I have proved beyond reasonable doubt

in the desperate fight with the Muhammadans

that Abhaichand and Sahas and Rahas were con

fighting with Ibrahim Shah Sharki of Jaunpur

under the walls of the Dalmau fort. The date of their death is therefore 1247 A. D. That the local account should have substituted Ibra him Sharki for the earlier Muhammadan con

at Dalmau on the Ganges, and near the boun

queror presents no difficulty, as such mistakes in

dary of the Roy Bareilly and Pratābgarh dis

tradition are of constant occurrence.

tricts.

So much for the date. The next question is who were these Bhar Kings 2 We are helped some way towards an answer by two inscriptions discovered at Kálanjar, and criticized by Lassen

temporaries and lived early in the 13th century.” A third tradition states that Dal and Bal fell

The locality is fixed by the fact that a

large crowd of Ahirs collects once a year at a mound, the reputed tomb of the chieftains, about a mile from the fort, and offer milk to their


 * Report on the Family History of Roy Bareilly Clans, pp. 8, 17, and appendix, p. iii.